If you have tried to join Safaricom PostPay recently, especially either the 1K or 2K plans (named so after their earlier cost of enrollment and monthly billing: either Kshs 1,000 or Kshs 2,000), then you know very well how tedious it gets to be able to find a bundle to subscribe to since that regime of an automatic resource allocation ended and one has to subscribe to a bundle of their choice.
That has meant a dalliance between the old PostPay bundles and the All-in-One bundles that Safaricom introduced back in 2019 when it sunset Flex, a product targeted at “hustlers” long before the term became a political slogan and Advantage+, a PostPay subscribers product.
Now, Safaricom is merging them into one product: Go Monthly plans.
And it is doing so with a price drop for its PostPay subscribers who will now no longer have to part with an extra Kshs 50, 100, 150, 200 or 430 on top of the usual monthly fee of Kshs 1,000, 2,000, 3,000, 5,000 or 10,000, respectively.
Prices for the said products had gone up following the implementation of the increased excise duty on calls and mobile data a year ago.
See below the new rates:
| New Price (Kshs) | Old Price (Kshs) | Resources | Validity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | 1,050 | 400 minutes + 5GB + 1000 SMS + FREE 2GB YouTube + WhatsApp | 30 days | |
| 2,000 | 2,100 | 1,000 minutes + 15GB + 2,000 SMS + FREE 2GB YouTube + WhatsApp | 30 days | |
| 3,000 | 3,150 | 1,500 minutes + 25GB + 3,000 SMS + FREE 2GB YouTube + WhatsApp | 30 days | |
| 5,000 | 5,200 | 2,500 minutes + 45GB + 5,000 SMS + FREE 2GB YouTube + WhatsApp | 30 days | |
| 10,000 | 10,430 | 7,500 minutes + 100GB + 1,000 SMS + FREE 2GB YouTube + WhatsApp | 30 days |
“All Go Monthly customers will enjoy free 2GB YouTube every month, while customers on the 5k and 10k plans will enjoy unlimited data capped at 45GB and 100GB respectively, after which they will browse at 3Mbps speed. Go Monthly customers will be able to use their minutes to call across all local networks as well as China, India, USA, and Canada,” reads a statement from Safaricom.
All of that sounds good so far, right? I mean, we have a less confusing PostPay bundles regime and they are even cheaper, right? What’s not to like there?
Well, here’s the catch:
“As part of the revamp, the plans will have a validity of 30 days, and only data will roll over upon renewal of PostPay or purchase of another monthly bundle.”
Safaricom has not said what will happen to existing accumulated minutes so we can, assume, that those are safe, at least for now. However, from your next subscription, the minutes you accumulate won’t be.
Safaricom also says that it is working on introducing a device bundle that will see Go Monthly subscribers be able to get 4G and 5G smartphones as part of a plan that includes the repayment for the device as well as data, voice and SMS bundles.
